Murata Manufacturing has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Xona Space Systems to jointly develop next-generation satellite positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) solutions based on low Earth orbit (LEO) infrastructure.
The collaboration targets highly accurate and resilient PNT for demanding industrial, communications, and mobility applications where conventional GNSS often reaches its limits.
Strategic Collaboration Overview
The MOU formalizes cooperation between Murata and Xona to combine Murata’s expertise in high-frequency and wireless communications, sensors, timing devices, and module design with Xona’s advanced LEO-based PNT technologies. The companies will investigate product and module concepts that can enhance accuracy, robustness, and availability of positioning and timing in real-world deployments across multiple verticals.
Murata has already invested in Xona through its corporate venture capital arm, WONDERSTONE Ventures, and this agreement represents a deepening of their existing strategic relationship. The collaboration aligns with Murata’s recognition of the space domain as a key growth area and its ambition to contribute to the evolution of social and industrial infrastructure.
LEO PNT Versus Conventional GNSS
Traditional PNT systems rely predominantly on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) operating in medium Earth orbit (MEO), which can suffer from degraded availability and accuracy in urban canyons and indoor environments, and are increasingly exposed to jamming and spoofing threats. By contrast, LEO satellites orbit significantly closer to Earth, enabling much stronger received signal levels that improve reception in dense urban areas and inside buildings.
The higher orbital speed of LEO satellites produces faster geometry changes, which allows observation data to be collected over shorter time intervals, improving convergence times and reducing multipath errors. As a result, hybrid concepts that combine GNSS with dedicated LEO PNT services are gaining attention as a pathway to higher accuracy and resilience for critical infrastructure and autonomous systems.
Xona’s Pulsar LEO PNT Service
Xona Space Systems is building Pulsar, a dedicated LEO satellite constellation designed as a high-performance PNT service with significantly stronger signals than legacy GNSS systems. Pulsar targets centimeter-level positioning accuracy, improved performance in challenging urban environments, and enhanced robustness against jamming and spoofing attacks.
The service is designed for compatibility with existing GNSS user equipment, enabling Pulsar signals to be integrated alongside traditional GNSS to upgrade positioning performance without wholesale hardware replacement. This approach supports a smoother transition path for industrial, mobility, and infrastructure customers that seek higher precision and integrity while leveraging installed GNSS-capable devices.
Murata’s Role in High-Performance PNT Hardware
Murata brings decades of experience in RF front ends, high-frequency components, wireless communications modules, sensors, and precision timing devices to the collaboration. By combining these capabilities with Xona’s LEO PNT signals, the companies aim to explore optimized module solutions that deliver high-accuracy positioning and timing synchronization for system integrators and OEMs.
The intent is to evaluate module architectures that can simultaneously handle multi-orbit satellite signals, robust timing holdover, and dense integration into compact industrial or communications equipment. Such modules could serve as building blocks for equipment vendors across communications, data center infrastructure, transportation, and automation markets.
Target Industrial and Infrastructure Applications
High-Accuracy Timing for Communications and Finance
Murata and Xona plan to study applications in data centers and financial institutions that require highly accurate and resilient timing synchronization. These environments are increasingly sensitive to timing integrity due to high-frequency trading, distributed computing, and emerging 5G/6G network architectures that depend on strict phase and frequency alignment.
By leveraging LEO PNT as an additional timing source alongside conventional GNSS, the companies aim to improve timing continuity in degraded GNSS conditions and strengthen resilience against interference and spoofing. This can help operators meet stringent service-level and regulatory requirements for critical timing infrastructure.
Positioning in Off-Road and GNSS-Challenged Environments
Another key focus area will be off-road sectors such as construction and agricultural machinery, where precise positioning is required in environments that can be challenging for conventional GNSS. In these applications, consistent sub-meter or even centimeter-level accuracy directly impacts productivity, safety, and automation capability.
The stronger LEO signals and faster geometry of Pulsar can help maintain reliable positioning in obstructed environments, while integrated Murata-based modules can provide compact and robust hardware for OEM integration. This combination aims to support the scaling of advanced driver assistance and autonomous operation in heavy equipment and specialized vehicles.
Advancing Resilient PNT for Modern Society
PNT has become a foundational technology for modern society, underpinning communications networks, industrial automation, mobility, and consumer IoT ecosystems. The collaboration between Murata and Xona is positioned to support the transition from single-layer GNSS dependence toward multi-layer, multi-orbit architectures that provide higher integrity and resilience.
Murata plans to continue investing in foundational technologies such as positioning and timing synchronization as part of its broader strategy to enable next-generation social infrastructure. By working with Xona and other ecosystem partners, the company aims to help bring robust LEO-based PNT services into mainstream industrial and infrastructure deployments worldwide.
Murata in Brief
Murata Manufacturing is a global leader in the design, manufacture, and sale of ceramic-based passive electronic components and solutions, communication modules, and power supply modules. The company focuses on advanced electronic materials, high-density multifunctional modules, and maintains manufacturing and R&D facilities around the world.
Murata’s portfolio spans capacitors, inductors, resistors, filters, sensors, connectivity modules, and power solutions used across automotive, industrial, communications, consumer, and healthcare markets. Its growing activities in space- and PNT-related technologies reflect an expansion into new domains that support the digital transformation of infrastructure and industry.
Source
This article is based on information provided in a corporate press release issued by Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., supplemented with publicly available background information on Xona Space Systems and LEO PNT technology.
References
- Murata press release – Murata Manufacturing and Xona Space Systems Sign MOU to Leverage LEO Satellite Navigation Capabilities for Industrial Applications
- Xona Space Systems – Pulsar LEO PNT overview
- Innospace Masters – Next-generation satellite navigation from LEO for autonomous vehicles
- UNOOSA – Xona’s mission presentation (LEO PNT)
- Furuno and Xona MoU announcement – LEO PNT timing solutions
